Home/Student Scholarship Recipients Recognized at Annual Meeting of Arizona Section of the Society for Range Management

Student Scholarship Recipients Recognized at Annual Meeting of Arizona Section of the Society for Range Management

Sunday, January 25, 2015

At the Annual Meeting in Tucson on 15 January 2015, the recipients of the Section’s Outstanding Undergraduate Student Scholarship and the Marcelle E. Schmutz Memorial Scholarship, and the S. Clark Martin Memorial Scholarship were announced.

Emily Pecilunas (see picture) received the $300 Outstanding Undergradaute Scholarship. She is a Senior and will be graduating in May 2015 with a degree in Natural Resources with emphasis in Rangeland Ecology and Management. Ms. Pecilunas was born and raised in Peoria, AZ. She is the current President of the University of Arizona Student Chapter of the Society for Range Management, also known as Tierra Seca Club. She will be competing in the student Undergraduate Range Management Exam in Sacramento at the Society for Range Management Annual Meeting. She is currently applying for jobs, hoping to obtain a position related to wildland fire and its impacts on ecosystems.

Leland Sutter and Rachel Turner (see picture) each received the $350 Marcelle E. Schmutz Memorial Scholarship given in memory of Erv Schmutz’s father. Erv was a longtime faculty member in Range Management at University of Arizona. Mr. Sutter is the Vice President of the University of Arizona Student Chapter of the Society for Range Management, also known as Tierra Seca Club. He was raised in Arizona including being a member of the rodeo team at Marana High School. He is a veteran of US Army service which included deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan. His passion for all things related to rangeland ecology and management stems from time spent working with cattle and horses on his uncle’s ranch in northern Arizona. He plans to pursue a graduate program in rangeland ecology and management, and eventually to buy a ranch and sustainability raise livestock.

Ms. Turner is a Senior and will be graduating in May 2015 with a degree in Natural Resources with emphasis in Rangeland Ecology and Management. She is active in the Honors College, and will completed an Honors Project in the Department of Nutritional Sciences. Ms. Tuner was raised in Maricopa, AZ and plans to continue her education in the Ecology, Management, and Restoration of Rangelands graduate program at the University of Arizona starting in Fall 2015. Her formal education has provided an opportunity to study plant-animal interactions and to spend significant amounts of time in the field. Ms. Turner would like to work for Cooperative Extension after completing her education. She will be competing in the student Undergraduate Range Management Exam and the Plant Identification contests at the annual meeting of the Society for Range Management in Sacramento, CA.

Anna Collins and Alanna Riggs were recognized for receiving the S. Clark Martin Memorial Scholarship in February 2014 by tying for highest score among Arizona Section students competing in the Undergraduate Range Management Exam at the annual meeting in Orlando, FL in 2014. They tied for 8th place among 153 students representing 21 different universities from Canada, Mexico and the US. Ms. Collins is a Senior and will be graduating in May 2015 with a degree in Natural Resources with emphasis in Rangeland Ecology and Management. She is the current President of the Society for Range Management Student Conclave and will be competing in the student Undergraduate Range Management Exam at the annual meeting in Sacramento at the Society for Range Management Annual Meeting. Ms. Riggs graduated from the University of Arizona in May 2014 with dual degrees in Spanish and Natural Resources with emphasis in Rangeland Ecology and Management. She currently lives and works on the family ranch near Willcox, AZ.